Korean Job Discussion Forums

[MantisBot]

I've been looking around for jobs lately and I often am told that the contracts offered to me are "some-what" lacking. However, I really have no idea what a good contract looks like. Can some of the more experienced teachers out there post contracts of varying acceptability? I'd just like to see what's to be expected. Can you also qualify the contracts you post with what experience you had at the time you negotiated that contract? Thanks a bunch!

[Grotto]

read the contracts sticky

a decent contract will give you clearly stated hours

2-8 or whatever
no more than 5 classes a day(usually available to people with experience who have been in Korea a while)max of 6
mon-fri(no weekend work or holidays)
Overtime rate of 25,000won an hour
OT rate is based weekly
Pay of at least 2.2 mil won a month
Pension
Health
appropriate tax rate(about 1.5%)
10 days vacation
3-5 sick days
furnished apartment with air con and the usual furnishings(bed, chair, closet/dresser, fridge, stove, pots, pans and utensils, desk, TV, etc)
severance

you shouldnt have to be at the school(working) more than 30 hours a week.(coming in to prep 15-20 minutes early is okay(its even professional)....being forced in an hour early is not!)

Better contracts offer bonuses for unused sick days, more vacation time and bonus pay for intensives or camps.

I used to state that you should get a teaching hour defined as 50 minutes but the contract should just state that you are paid for being at the school for 6 hours a day mon-fri with set times and anything outside of that timeframe will be construed as overtime!(meetings, fieldtrips, evaluations, interviews etc)

[MantisBot]

I've read the contract sticky before and am mainly looking for help in wording of contracts. Often I'll look at my sub-par contract offers and think "huh, there's stuff missing here but what wording should I use to get what I need..."

I'm asking to see examples of good contracts so that I (and perhaps other newbs) can gauge what has been offered with what should be expected while also picking up some useful contractual language to paste into contracts should they need it. Also, it would be helpful to know what kind of leverage certain qualifications and experience levels can get you when negotiating contracts.

Furthermore, in my noodling around the internet I've come across a few "generic" contracts that looked alright but I would like to compare them to contracts that have actually been used by people. Sometimes stuff works better in theory than when it's actually been implemented after all.

[Grotto]

cubanlord has a contract he put together that isnt too bad


Pm him or dig through his posts to find it.....i think its called 'my gift to you'

[MantisBot]

Will do, thanks:D

[ella]

cubanlord, if you're around, could you please repost that contract here? Was this something you actually got an employer to agree to?

[Grotto]

according to Cubanlord the teachers at his school are all using the same contract!

[Homer]

Grotto makes a good suggestion as to what a good contract should include.

My only reservation is with the pay....

2.2 is a good goal but a new teacher with zero experience and an unrelated B.A. should be ready to accept a salary of 2.0.

[Goob]

Here's the thread Cubanlord made w/r/t the contract Grotto was talking about.

[salboski]

I would also say (this is for me) get something in the contract about what kind of classes and how big. I HATE teaching little ones. They are so unreasonable.